Just ran your first Gumshoe report and wondering “Now what?” AI Optimization (AIO) is the next step! It’s how you make sure your brand shows up when models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity generate answers. Gumshoe measures your AI visibility and points out where to improve.
After running a report, there are three main levers you can pull to start lifting your visibility results.
1 - Third-Party Content
AI models rely heavily on trusted external sources when deciding which brands to mention. If your competitors appear more often, it’s often because they are cited across industry publications, review sites, blogs, or ecosystem partners.
What to do:
- Get your brand covered in respected publications and comparison articles.
- Partner with ecosystem platforms to publish integrations or case studies.
- Pitch thought leadership and neutral explainers that highlight your expertise.
This increases the number of citable mentions AI models can pull into their responses.
For more guidance on influencing third-party sources, visit these Help Center articles:
- What Are the Sources and Sources by Category Sections in my Gumshoe Report?
- How Do I Click Through and Analyze Sources & Citations in a Gumshoe Report?
- How Do I Create a Third-Party Content Strategy?
2 - Technical Improvements
Even if you already have great content, AI models may miss it if your site isn’t structured properly. Models look for machine-readable formats and structured facts they can extract directly.
What to do:
- Add schema markup (e.g., FAQPage, Product/Service, SoftwareApplication).
- Improve content-to-code balance on your pages.
- Use semantic headings and clear fact blocks instead of burying information in long prose.
- Ensure your site is crawlable by AI bots like GPTBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot.
This helps AI models read and trust your site more effectively.
For more guidance on improving your technical AI Optimization, visit these Help Center articles:
- What is the Page Audit in Gumshoe?
- How Do I Access the Page Audit Tool?
- How do I Optimize Technically for AI Search?
3 - First-Party Content
Your own site remains the foundation for AIO. Without clear, authoritative first-party content, third-party mentions and schema won’t be enough. AI models need to see you explain your solutions directly.
What to do:
- Publish detailed FAQ-style pages that answer the exact questions buyers (and AI models) are asking.
- Create structured explainers.
- Maintain fresh, factual content across solution pages, integration pages, and case studies.
This gives AI models the core facts and narratives they need to include your brand in recommendation answers.
For more guidance on creating AI-optimized content, visit these Help Center articles:
Putting It Together
The three levers—third-party content, technical improvements, and first-party content—work best when combined. Set small achievable goals between each Gumshoe report run and see how your improvements impact your visibility.